


The extension of your soul in my unworthy hands

by Tinglecannon



Series: Fairgameweek2020 [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Clover and Qrow swap weapons in battle because plot reasons, Drawn out fight scenes, Flirting, I'm sorry I'm not great at writing fight scenes please bear with me, M/M, Swapping weapons is something that can actually be so personal, Swearing, The Grimm are very stupid and Qrow is very done, it goes ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-22 21:55:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23200984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tinglecannon/pseuds/Tinglecannon
Summary: Day 3: WeaponsThey both managed to avoid the falling debris, and it even crushed the Sabyr, but this all had to be his misfortune’s doing. Because he and Clover were separated by a large hunk of wreckage, he dropped Harbingeragain, and instead on the ground a foot away was a very familiar fishing rod.Qrow fixed his gaze on Kingfisher.It laid there innocently next to his feet, a glimmer of light reflecting off the surface of the hook in a way that was almost inviting. Qrow knew he didn’t really have any other choices.
Relationships: Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi
Series: Fairgameweek2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1665670
Comments: 14
Kudos: 70





	The extension of your soul in my unworthy hands

**Author's Note:**

> I spent 2 hours trying to come up with a title for this.
> 
> Day 3: ~~Family~~ /Weapons

Qrow’s semblance really was out to get him.

Getting ambushed is something they can’t control, which he’ll admit to. There was no way his semblance could’ve caused that.

Having to fall back because of the overwhelming number of Grimm is bad luck, but not necessarily _his_ bad luck.

However, not moving away fast enough from a Nevermore strike and _dropping Harbinger_ in the process? That is definitely his own misfortune acting up.

Qrow landed on his feet and skid a few feet back, the Nevermore only grazed his arm but it was enough to jolt Harbinger out of his grasp. He glanced at his weapon, then to the Nevermore. It's glowing red eyes were locked on him for a second more before it dove forward with a powerful flap of it's hulking wings.

Qrow lunged into action. He darted forward and ducked under its talons as it swooped past him, the tips barely missing his cape as the tattered fabric bellowed behind him, and used the momentum to somersault. He reached an arm out to grab Harbinger mid roll when a second Nevermore swept past him and grabbed it first.

Shit.

When he was firmly on the ground again he glared up. It was flying higher than he could jump, and he still had the first Nevermore circling back around to worry about. The only positive in this situation here was that the creature couldn’t use his weapon against him.

The far more important negative in this situation was it left him defenseless.

Fuck.

By a stroke of good luck he didn’t have to worry for long, because a fishing line zipped out and connected with the feet of the Nevermore, wrapping around the talons securely before jerking harshly. The force caused the Grimm to shriek and release it’s hold on Harbinger.

Qrow leapt forward to catch it, fingers curling around the handle at the same time as the first Nevermore colliding into him, though this time he didn't let go of Harbinger even as he flew through the air and tumbled on the ground. The blow wasn’t very powerful as neither were aiming for each other but instead aiming for the falling sword, like they just ran into each other around a corner not paying attention where they were going. Qrow still felt his aura flicker, and worried he was running much lower on energy than he originally thought.

Qrow quickly glanced over his shoulder towards Clover and nodded a thank you, who returned it with a wink while raising his free hand to his ear comp. “Team Alpha checking in. Team Bravo, Charlie, how are you all holding up?”

 _“Great! We’ll have this area cleared in no time!”_ Elm’s voice rang through far too loudly.

 _“Busy,”_ Harriett grumbled.

 _“We’re ok!”_ Marrow quickly corrected. _“We’re working with team RWBY to evacuate the southern block.”_

“Good. Remember to radio in if you need any help,” Clover instructed, dropping his hand and moving closer to Qrow. 

“Two Nevermores,” Qrow muttered.

A roar suddenly rang out and they whipped their heads to the side towards the noise, where two large cat-like creatures creeped closer. “And two Sabyrs,” Clover added. They looked at each other, nodded, and both jumped backwards by the closest building for some coverage from the Nevermores.

The Sabyrs weaved around each other as they charged. Clover whipped Kingfisher into its extended form and flicked the pin on his lapel, a small white light glinting off it’s edge. He tossed out the line at the further Sabyr, successfully wrapping around its neck, and tugged it into the other Sabyr. As he did this, Qrow shifted Harbinger into rifle form and shot at the Grimm that was tangled up. It roared out in pain and crumpled into the ground.

The other Sabyr kept charging, even when the first rammed into it, and pounced towards them. Clover easily sidestepped out of the way. Qrow on the other hand, tripped on a few pieces of rubble and fell gracelessly on the ground instead. The Sabyr soared above him and crashed into the brick wall behind them, hollering in time with a loud crunch sound.

It was an accident but tripping _did_ get him out of the way of the Grimm, though he would’ve preferred if he didn’t scruff up his palms trying to soften his landing.

Or if he didn’t drop Harbinger in the process.

 _“Is this a fucking joke?!”_ Qrow growled. Losing your weapon was unacceptable, and to do so twice was insanity.

Fortunately, the weapon merely slid a few feet away by Clover’s heel, and not in the claws of a Nevermore again. 

Unfortunately, the already unstable building they were standing under started to crumble after the Grimm smashed into it, so when a large chunk started to fall he didn’t have time to retrieve Harbinger before being jerked up by his cape and tossed out of the way.

 _"Look out!"_ Clover shouted.

Qrow clenched his eyes shut as he fell back and landed on his butt, instinctively rolling upon impact to soften the landing. The cacophony of the building collapsing was deafening, but Qrow was certain he heard a muffled roar throughout the thwacking of bricks and metal raining down on the concrete.

Qrow groaned as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. He squinted, coughing through all the drywall powder and soot hanging in the air. When he couldn’t find his partner, panic spiked in his chest. “Clover?!”

“Fine! The rocks fell around me!” He called out instantly. Relief flooded Qrow’s bones immediately. As the dust settled he was able to make out the faint outline of black mist under a slab of stone, signaling the Grimm died. 

“What about you, are you ok?”

“As ok as I can be.”

They both managed to avoid the falling debris, and it even crushed the Sabyr, but this all had to be his misfortune’s doing. Because he and Clover were separated by a large hunk of wreckage, he dropped Harbinger _again_ , and instead on the ground a foot away was a very familiar fishing rod.

Qrow fixed his gaze on Kingfisher.

It laid there innocently next to his feet, a glimmer of light reflecting off the surface of the hook in a way that was almost inviting. Qrow knew he didn’t really have any other choices.

He reached down and delicately but urgently wrapped his fingers around the handle. It was just a _touch_ too big to fit perfectly in his grasp but wasn't so big it was awkward to wield. He jerked his hand up with too much force and almost hit himself in the face, subconsciously calculating for the weight of Harbinger and not the much lighter fishing rod, and cursed under his breath.

Qrow shut his eyes to ground himself for a second. 

He inhaled through his nose, held it for a beat, then exhaled through his mouth and blinked his eyes open again. As he stood up he rolled Kingfisher's handle in his hand a couple of times, getting a feel for the weight and shape of it. It was...strange, carrying a weapon that wasn’t his own. It felt oddly intimate holding someone else’s weapon.

Holding Clover’s weapon.

This was a bad idea but there was no time to worry about that.

Qrow whipped his arm to the side as he’s seen Clover do hundreds of times, and felt the slide and clink of Kingfisher extending outwards into three segmented pieces with the hook hanging at the end. Actually holding the rod in his hand, it felt much sturdier than he originally thought.

A shrill cry drew his attention from the rod and towards the sky. Now that part of the building collapsed, their coverage from the Nevermores was gone. The two circled above, cried out again, and both tucked their wings in to dive bomb down.

Qrow drew his arm back and swung it forward like he was casting a line. 

The hook slid out of the rod and hit the ground with a dull thud.

Qrow was an idiot to think he could swing Kingfisher around with the finesse Clover does. He cursed under his breath, and quickly scooped up the hook. He twirled the line in a large loop like a lasso and chucked it upwards, managing to smack one of the Nevermores in the face with enough force to stun it. As the hook came falling back down, he jerked Kingfisher to the side to try and manipulate the line. Somehow it worked enough to swing the hook in an arc and graze the underside of the second Nevermore’s chin before plummeting through the sky. The grimm shrieked, and stopped it’s descent only for the second one to crash into it, dazing both of them.

“Ok...maybe this isn’t too difficult…”

Qrow spoke too soon. Instead of drawing back into Kingfisher’s reel, the line and hook fell in a clump, stretched out about fifteen feet away from him. 

And he didn’t know how to retract it. 

He groaned in frustration, and chanced a glance to see if Clover was out from the rubble and how he was faring in this situation. Clover was a few buildings away, not too far he couldn’t rush over to help if need be, but enough that the Sabyr he was fighting wouldn’t even consider Qrow as a target over him.

Clover jumped out of the way of the Sabyr’s wide sweep of its claw and, with both hands firmly holding Harbinger in it’s longsword form, slashed the grimm from the side down to its hind leg in one seamless motion. The way his brows were furrowed with a tight frown on his lips showed he was deep in concentration. 

Despite the look of extreme focus on Clover’s face, he seemed to be having a much easier time with this impromptu swap than Qrow was. He may be biased, but Harbinger was _much_ simpler to figure out than Kingfisher. In fact, he probably would’ve teased Clover for weeks (provided they survived this) if he wasn’t able to even use it as a sword.

Qrow turned back to his own fight. The Nevermores were shaking off the daze from their collision and were about to dive bomb again. Qrow didn’t have the skill to get Kingfisher to whip around and tie them up, and trying to lasso them together was out of the question.

Close combat it was.

Qrow rushed over to retrieve the hook, picked it up and gripped it tightly in his free hand, carefully not to slice his hand on the sharp edge and not bothering to try to wrangle the line back into the reel. He locked eyes on the Nevermores, bracing himself for the dive bomb and twisting out of the way at the last moment, swinging the retracted line up and lacing his fingers in the excess he pulled it taut against the neck of the closest Grimm, preventing it from flying off again like the other one.

It shrieked and threw its head back, which only dug the wire deeper against its neck. Qrow was practically straddling the Nevermore’s shoulders pulling the wire as hard as he could, his fingers turning white from loss of circulation. Trying to readjust the digits while not releasing the Grimm made him fidget, when all of a sudden --

The spike on the bottom of Kingfisher’s handle propelled out with such force he almost lost balance, killing the Grimm instantly with a sharp spike through the skull.

Qrow blinked owlishly, black mist pouring out from in between him and the now loosely hanging fishing line. He slowly raised Kingfisher up and examined the handle; the butt end had a wire connecting down to the spike that shot out, and only then did Qrow notice the two tiny rectangular buttons on the handle.

“...Kingfisher has a _harpoon_?” He shouted incredulously, then turned to shout in Clover’s direction. “Why didn’t you tell me Kingfisher had a harpoon?!”

“It uh,” Clover shouted back as he swung Harbinger in a large arc, dealing the final blow to the Sabyr and turning towards Qrow as it roared in pain and burst into black mist. “Never seemed relevant?”

The bastard even shrugged.

“Never seemed relevant…” Qrow grumbled as he experimentally clicked both buttons on the handle. Immediately all the wire on both ends zipped back into the reel, the hook and spike ends both clicking into place. Dammit was it really that easy this entire time?

The final Nevermore bellowed out a high pitched cry from above. Qrow was getting awfully tired of this, and felt some relief to see Clover in the corner of his eye slow to a jog until stopping next to him. They made eye contact, teal meeting crimson, nodded in unison, and turned back to the Nevermore.

It didn’t stand a chance.

The second it was in range Qrow swung Kingfisher’s line out around its body and Clover sliced its head clean off its neck with Harbinger, the body dissipating into black mist instantly. Clover stepped back, jerking Harbinger in his hands and watching as the gears whirred and the metal pieces all slotted against each other, successfully shifting it back into it’s compressed form.

Then he smiled over at Qrow and Qrow realized; they still had each other’s weapons.

They _kept_ each other’s weapons to fight that Nevermore instead of switching back.

"Uh, here you go." Qrow blurted, all but shoving the handle of Kingfisher into Clover's free hand.

"Oh, thanks. And here's your weapon back," Clover was far more gentle handing over Harbinger. "Harbinger certainly is interesting. Very complex, and much heavier than it looks."

"Thanks. Kingfisher surprisingly is even lighter than it looks," he chuckled. "It's uh, not as weird to use as I expected. Still a little weird though."

Clover tilted his head back with a good-natured laugh. "I intentionally crafted my weapon to be difficult for someone else to wield, but easy for me to get a grasp on and manipulate with my semblance. Your weapon is an extension of yourself, after all."

Right. Huntsmen weapons. Extension of the soul.

Qrow just said Clover's soul was weird. Fuck.

"Sorry I didn't mean---"

"Oh, no offense taken!" Clover waved his concerns off with a lazy flick of the wrist. "It was impressive to see you could manage it at all. And you figured out the harpoon too."

"I don't get why you don't use that side more often."

“I tend to work as support and stay long-distance, and the harpoon doesn’t have as much wire give as the hook does. Harbinger has a number of forms but most are for close quarters combat, so I see why you were more comfortable with that version of Kingfisher."

Qrow hummed in response.

He clicked Harbinger back onto the clip on his back and kept his hand on the handle, drumming the fingers of his other hand on his thigh, racking his brain for something else to say.

“I almost punched myself in the face picking up Kingfisher.”

Smooth, Qrow.

Qrow’s semblance must be taking a break though, _finally_ , because instead of mocking him Clover offered up with a sheepish smile, "I was afraid of accidentally throwing Harbinger if I used one hand.”

Qrow barked a laugh, the mental image of Clover twirling Harbinger like it was Kingfisher and it not ending well clear in his head. "Well I appreciate you not doing that, even if it would've been funny to see."

A comfortable pause settled between them.

Or it would have been, if Qrow wasn’t anxious. He wasn’t sure why, but his heart was pounding so hard he could hear the blood flow in his ears and his palms felt sweaty.

He kind of sorta...missed Kingfisher. Even if it was ridiculous and overly complicated to use.

Qrow cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous titter to his tone. “That was fun...Maybe we could swap weapons again sometime.”

Clover’s eyes widen at the suggestion.

“I’m just kidding---”

“That sounds really nice, actually.”

Oh.

“Y-yeah?”

Clover grinned a thousand-watt smile, and it made Qrow’s heart melt a little. “Yeah. It would be an...interesting training method. And maybe we could get to know each other better through this exchange. You know, with weapons being an extension of yourself and all.” He finished with a wink.

_Oh._

Qrow didn’t get the chance to respond, or flirt back, or whatever this is, because the ear coms beeped loudly with a frantic sounding message from Marrow ringing through. _“Hey, Captain! We could use some backup out here!”_

Clover had a hand to his ear to respond in an instant. “We’re on the way.” They made eye contact and nodded before running off.

\---

After successfully killing the last Grimm, Qrow swung the wire of Kingfisher with ease, not even paying full attention as the line zipped back and the hook secured at the end.

“You’re getting much better at that.”

Qrow glanced to his side at Clover, who rested Harbinger in scythe form on his shoulders with both hands loosely holding the handle. “Heh, could say the same to you. You were terrified of using the scythe before.”

“Not terrified, just not confident enough to not hurt myself,” Clover corrected with a chiding tone. “You should be grateful I wasn’t running around swinging Harbinger with reckless abandonment like _someone_ was doing to _my_ weapon.”

Qrow shrugged, unfazed by that dig. “How else was I supposed to get used to shooting and retracting Kingfisher’s line.”

“Maybe by following any of my advice?”

“Bah,” Qrow scoffed. The two started laughing, the lull in conversation easy between them.

“Ready to swap back?”

Qrow watched Clover as he shifted Harbinger into its compressed form with a practiced ease, wearing an easy smile the entire time. When finished Clover looked up at him, deep teal orbs locking with crimson ones, and patiently waited for a response.

“Nah, I can carry Kingfisher. I uh, don’t mind. It’s lighter anyway, makes for easier cargo to carry.” That wasn’t a lie, but wasn’t the full truth either. He had grown to greatly enjoy using Kingfisher and letting Clover use Harbinger. What started as a necessary gamble in a life or death situation had evolved into the biggest sign of trust Qrow had ever given someone before and ever been given in return. It was a little overwhelming to think about the implications of this set up.

He didn’t entirely hate the way it made it heart flutter though.

“Lucky you,” Clover smirked. “That’s fine, I feel cool carrying a sword on my hip anyway.”

“Definitely cooler than a fishing rod.”

“If you’re gonna complain I’ll take my weapon back.”

Qrow just stuck his tongue out and started walking away, Kingfisher condensed into its smallest form hanging off the clip on his back.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic would just.not.end. When I came up with the idea of them swapping weapons in battle I foolishly thought 'Oh I can write this in 1k or less!' 3k words later and here we are, me finishing literally minutes before midnight after working on it on and off for a week. I really hated this fic the entire time I wrote it but once I went to bed, reread it and did last minute edits today before uploading, it's not as bad as I thought before. Still not too confident in my ability to write fights that flow well, but this was good practice.  
> I haven't finished any of the other days yet lmao, but none of them gave me as much trouble as this one so I'll probably be able to keep pace! Maybe!
> 
> Hope y'all enjoyed![This is my Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/tinglecannon)


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